34-6 ART INDUSTRY AND RELATED OCCUPATIONS. 



Ki-urushi or raw lac, like the varieties of lac prepared from it, 

 is kept in wooden vessels (tubs or flat round boxes), and protected 

 carefully from light and dust. It cannot be used by the lacquerer 

 without further preparation, but must first go through various 

 processes of purifying and transformation, the first of which con- 

 sists in freeing it from the mechanically introduced bits of bark 

 and wood. To effect this, it is pressed through cotton cloth, and 

 then is called Ki-sho-mi, i.e.^ raw lac free from foreign substances. 



Before I go farther, I will give the results of my own, and par- 

 ticularly of Korschelt's, investigation of this substance. Ki-sho-mi, 

 or purified raw lac, is a grey to tan-brown, syrupy, very sticky 

 liquid of varied consistency and a specific gravity but little greater 

 than that of water. Korschelt estimated this at roo20-i'0379, 

 with which my own observations agree very well. A peculiar, 

 sweetish smell is especially noticeable in it, if it has been long in 

 a closed vessel. Under a powerful microscope a brownish mass 

 scattered with small globules of two sorts may be discovered, viz., 

 a very numerous small dark brown, and a more sparsely scattered 

 larger light-coloured sort. On adding water the latter disappear, 

 while pure alcohol dissolves only the first kind. Alcohol, like all 

 solvents of resin, — ether, chloroform, bi-sulphide of carbon, benzine, 

 — dissolves when cold, but much easier when moderately warmed, 

 a large quantity (between 60 and 80 per cent.) of raw lac, while 

 water has scarcely any influence, save to take up a small percentage 

 of the raw lac, after long shaking, which shows that this lacquer 

 is of a gummy resinous character. The constituents are as follows: 



1. A very small proportion of volatile acid. This disappears 

 very soon in ordinary temperature and the drying of the lacquer- 

 paint, but more rapidly when the lacquer is distilled with water. 

 I attribute the poisonous properties of raw lac, and the lacquer- 

 disease, to this not yet sufficiently understood substance. 



2. Water in varying quantities, from ic to 34 per cent, accord- 

 ing to whether the raw lac is obtained from young or old trees, 

 trunks or branches, in spring, summer, or autumn. It can be 

 expelled by stirring in the sun or over a slow fire, but especially 

 by distillation in a water-bath. 



3. A nitrogenous substance which Korschelt considers as albu- 

 men. Its quantity varies from 17 to 3*5 per cent. 



4. Gum, which in all essential characteristics seems to be the 



from 30,000 to 35,000 tubs. If he is followed in his estimate of four gallons to 

 the tub, or a weight of 18 kilogrammes, we have the enormous quantity of 

 540,000 to 630,000 kilogrammes, or more than five or six times the heavy yield 

 of 1877. There can be no doubt that this statement is erroneous. This is 

 seen also in Quin's own words, that every year about 1,500 lac tapsters are sent 

 out into the several districts of the country, and that each one can collect 

 about ^\ Taru or tubs of lac. 



Given now, the maximum of collection to these 1,500 persons, and we have 

 1,500x4^=6,750 tubs, and to each tub 18 kilogrammes, the total production 

 amounts to only 121,500 kilogrammes. 



